mix of cynicism and optimism, of banal reality and glam performance." Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal commented: "It's been a long premiere season of ups and downs, and this last show is a warm embrace that — let’s face it — you just don't want to let go." The Houston Chronicle Bobby Hankinson deemed the episode "awesome", observing: "While it was light on the usual humor, it was heavy on emotion, and I think that's ideal for a season finale. Glee ended its freshman season with a real wallop that took a couple of unexpected turns before pulling nicely into a satisfying finish." Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club graded the episode "A−", deeming it among the best of the entire season. She felt that: "On its own, 'Journey to Regionals' is a fantastic episode of Glee. As a capper to the season, it mostly works." While VanDerWerff had some issues with the episode, including Shelby's sudden decision to adopt Beth, she summarized that: "for once in this back nine, the good stuff absolutely overwhelms the stupid stuff." Jessica Derschowitz of CBS News felt that: "Glee wrapped up on a high note, leaving some of the season's less-appealing plotlines behind and heading towards the promise of more performances and more amazing Sue Sylvester one-liners next season." Time James Poniewozik wrote that with "Journey to Regionals", Glee "returned to its roots, balancing its weirdness, snark and bombast with intimate stories of small-town high school life. And it, too, by showing what it can be at its best, made its case for staying around another year." IGNs Eric Goldman rated "Journey to Regionals" 8.5/10, signifying a "great" episode. He felt that while it did not match the standards of the mid–season finale episode "Sectionals", it was "still a very satisfying wrap up to the first year of Glee." Gerrick D. Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times noted that he "went into the finale peeved at how incredibly messy last week's episode was", but overall he deemed the finale a success. Vanity Fair Brett Berk found "Journey to Regionals" a fulfilling, albeit "pretty mediocre" episode, describing it as having "a sense of narrative cohesion that went beyond the writers’ usual throwing-flatware-down-the-garburator modality". Jean Bentley of MTV found the episode representative of the first season as a whole, explaining: "Much like the entire first year of the show, the uneven episode started